Times 26145 – anagrams are back

Author   piquetPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
This gave me an easier ride than usual for a Wednesday, I had it done and dusted in 16 minutes, which is quick for me, even if it equates to several Magoos or Cryptic Sues. After yesterday’s anagrammatically bereft offering, this one scores 4.0 (at least; Verlaine et. al. please confirm). My LOI was 10a which seemed obvious from the wordplay but needed a quick Google to confirm or otherwise.

Across
1 GAUCHE – GAUCH(O) = cowboy, cut; E = end of rope; def. inept.
5 SPOTLAMP – SPOT = notice, LA(M)P = circuit, insert M; def. light source.
9 INORDINATE – (RAN EDITION)*, anagrind ‘turned out’, def. unusually large.
10 NORN – NO RN = no Royal Navy, so only for army and RAF; def. language. It’s an extinct North Germanic language which was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, it seems.
11 FLOWERED – f = female, LOWERED = let down; def. was blooming.
12 AYE-AYE – AYE = certainly, repeated; def. rare creature. The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a lemur, a strepsirrhine primate native to Madagascar and crosswordland.
13 EPEE – Hidden reversed in D(EEPE)R, def. blade.
15 NEOPRENE – Alternate letters of e N v E l O p P a R c E l then NE being a lot of NEW, def. polymer.
18 CALLIOPE – CALL = phone conversation, IE = that is, about OP = work; def. music maker. A Calliope is a very noisy whistling ‘musical’ instrument, usually steam driven. Not to be confused with the muse.
19 ALOE – ALO(N)E = unique, without the N; def. tropical plant.
21 G-FORCE – G = good, for CE = Christian era, the modern age; def. something astronauts feel.
23 EYESIGHT – YES = absolutely, insert into EIGHT = rowing team, def. vision.
25 CLIP – C = caught, LIP = cheek, def. earring, perhaps.
26 ABOMINABLE – (A MOBILE BAN)*, def. awful.
27 MYCOLOGY – MY, COY = military company, insert LOG = record; def. expertise with rust; the study of fungi.
28 SHEATH – S = small, HEATH = shrub; def. rubber, what the French sensibly call a préservatif.

Down
2 ANNUL – An ANNULUS is a ring, delete the US; def. cancel.
3 CARTWHEEL – CAR = vehicle, TW = tow,empty, HEEL = tilt sideways; def. turn.
4 EMIGRE – E, MIG = Russian fighter, RE = concerned with; def. defector.
5 STAND ON CEREMONY – A double definition, one literal, one colloquial.
6 OPERATOR – OPERA = Tosca, perhaps, TO, R = queen, def. company manager.
7 LANCE – (G)LANCE = butcher’s (hook, CRS), less the G, def. cutting blade. I was uncomfortable with a LANCE as a cutting blade, I thought it was more of a pointy thing, but nothing else seems to fit.
8 MARRY INTO – (MARTIN ROY)*, anagrind ‘are prepared’, def. to join in matrimony.
14 PLAYFULLY – PLAY = act, FULLY = quite; def. in Puck’s manner.
16 REANIMATE – (MARINE TEA)*, anagrind ‘drunken’, def. give further spirit to.
17 MODERATO – (E DOORMAT)*, anagrind ‘unravelled’, def. with steady beating.
20 GENIUS – GEN = information, I, US = one American, def. mastermind.
22 REPRO – RE = sappers, PRO = like an expert, def. copy. Is that a typo, ‘a’ not ‘an’?
24 HELOT – HE = AT(HE)NS heart, LOT = fate, def. Spartans. The Helots lived in Laconia and Messenia in the Peloponnese, areas ruled by Sparta.

38 comments on “Times 26145 – anagrams are back”

  1. No problems with this one, solved top to bottom, right to left.

    Today’s science question. As astronauts wear g-suits during launch and re-entry do they feel the g-force at those times and whilst in space isn’t g-force something they don’t feel?

    1. I wondered something similar (I didn’t think of g-suits, but I’d be surprised if they eliminate all feeling of g-force), and it reminded me of the film Gravity, where the plot hinges on a suspension of the laws of physics that for me at least was really grating.
      Then it occurred to me that they’re still astronauts on the way up and down.

      Edited at 2015-07-08 08:36 am (UTC)

    2. My understanding is that the suits lessen local pressure and pooling of fluids but the forces are still felt. They train in centrifuges to get used to the idea (and weed out those who can’t handle it). Remember James Bond in Moonraker?
      In space, yes, there is no G force, if you’re in an ISS orbiting so as to negate the gravity.
  2. Did not finish because of the, um, préservatif (thanks, Pip). I considered SHEATH but couldn’t see how it would possibly equate to ‘rubber’! I’m honestly not that innocent — had this been a Sunday puzzle I might have seen it, but we don’t usually see “that kind of thing” in the daily. Oh, the trials of the pure at heart!

    Bit annoying because I was feeling quite pleased with myself for working out MYCOLOGY and GAUCHE and NORN.

    Mid-solve, I did think to myself “I say, this’ll up the old anagram/clue ratio”. I’ll leave the calculations to the maths wizards, though.

    1. I have for many years had a mental knee jerk reaction to “rubber” caused by my innocently, as a very young man on his first business trip to the States, asking a rather attractive secretary if she could “find me a rubber”. It nearly caused a diplomatic incident!
      1. Dont even think of asking to be knocked up in the morning!
        I must admit that my first brush with this clue made me think of our American friends but it took a while before I realised just quite how relevant it was.
      2. I had the reverse experience many years ago in a French supermarket, when I asked the young lady behind the meat counter if they had any saucissons sans preservatifs. To this day I blush thinking about it.
  3. … no problems. A very Ulysses moment seeing the condom make its (first?) appearance and my LOI.
    May be an urban myth but Robertsons were allegedly surprised at their poor marmalade sales in France until someone pointed out that “Ce produit ne contient pas des préservatifs” didn’t mean what they thought.
  4. DNF. Like sotira, I was feeling pleased with having cracked MYCOLOGY and GAUCHE. I had managed to slip in SHEATH but NORN was my undoing, having plumped for RM rather than RN. With hindsight I think we might have seen NORN quite recently.
  5. After yesterday’s rich feast, this seemed somewhat insipid and unsatisfying fare by comparison.
    Having just last night finished reading “Two Girls, one on each Knee (7)”, an excellent exposition of all things crosswordy by Alan Connor, and with the last chapter “Racy” about clues in dubious taste, my eyebrows were certainly raised by 28a. As Sotira says, in the Sunday edition, yes – but the Daily Times of London? O tempora, O mores!
    20 minutes by the way.
  6. 27.17 for me, with more than half that time spent on LANCE (grudgingly accepts glance might be a butcher’s ‘ook) and NORM, short for Norman language, N or M, standard or something, after considering the hidden Ndra, possibly a language somewhere on the planet. Knew it was wrong, but knew not NORN the language. That’s Fate.
  7. A very slow solve for me with several unknowns that required some outside assistance. Got G-FORCE but yet again forgot CE as ‘Christian Era’ which has caught me out many times before.
    1. Isn’t it Common Era — so as to remove specific religions from the dating system?

  8. I too fell at the unknown NORN, where I had Royal Marines as RM. Bah, and it took me five mins of my 37 to arrive at norm!

    SHEATH with a raised eyebrow, dnk HELOT

  9. 32 minutes for this one, with 5 or 6 of those on LANCE and NORN at the end.

    Helots popped up just yesterday in Waverley, as the ranks assemble before Prestonpans.

    Edited at 2015-07-08 07:31 am (UTC)

  10. Quite a few went in on the first run through and then things were slowed only by putting ‘inordinant’ at 9ac, which made OPERATOR the LOI at a bit over twenty minutes. A double take at SHEATH but it added a little something to a straightforward offering.
  11. Having biffed EDGE at 33, made 14 look like the momble DEEDFULLY, then got CALLIOPE, but was still left with 2 errors.
    Had the same thoughts as John on G-FORCE, and mental reservations on SHEATH made it LOI.
  12. 19m. 7 minutes for everything but 10ac and 7dn, then 12 minutes without solving a clue. Eventually I twigged what was going on with the unknown NORN, which gave me LANCE. I had considered the latter early on, but dismissed it on the grounds that a LANCE is a pointy thing not a cutty thing. But Chambers has ‘a blade in cutting tool to sever the grain in advance of the main blade’.
  13. 13 mins. After yesterday’s muppetry I decided to wait until I could parse MYCOLOGY before I was happy to enter it, and it was my LOI. When I initially read the clue for it my first thought was that my=cor and I assumed that with rust in the clue the answer would be something to do with corrosion, but for obvious reasons I couldn’t think of a word that would both fit and satisfy the wordplay. If that was a deliberate misdirection by the setter it definitely merits a tip of the hat. Like others I was held up by the LANCE/NORN crossers, but I had no problem with SHEATH.
  14. 16:10 but couldn’t understand 28a, my LOI. Doh. Like Janie also dnk HELOT. Didn’t like G-FORCE much as it is really the weightlessness that astronauts expereince (and the rest of us don’t). But they do experience a pretty hefty G-FORCE on the way up, I suppose.
  15. Another double-taker at the “eraser” here. But if you really want your jaw to hit the floor try 13a in today’s Guardian. 14.36
    1. My initial reaction to 13ac in the Guardian was probably similar to yours Olivia, but then the overgrown schoolboy in me took over and I decided I really liked it. If it had been the other way round …………..
    2. I made sure to go for a lunchtime Guardian solve to see what you meant. What filth!
  16. 30m DNF with the unknown NORN – like others I guessed norm. Otherwise all straightforward enough.
  17. Held up by 10 but luckily I plumped for the navy and not the marines. 7:33
  18. About a half hour, with two wrong.
    Sadly, AFRA is also an almost extinct language (which I knew from somewhere), and (C)LEAVE gave a somewhat unsatisfying but still possible crosser – (thinking leaf = blade ?=? leave, as in grass).
    I still don’t understand COY –
    1. Paul – COY is just an abbreviation for “Company” used in the military.
  19. 10:22 which surprised me as I felt I was getting stuck at times. LOI playfully just after epee, annul biffed.

    Mild surprise at rubber, Chambers suggests that the required sense of operator is American.

    I’m another who sensed a high anagram quotient as I was going along.

  20. With one and a half eyes on the cricket. Might be the secret to doing these things, as I’ve beaten several solvers who are normally much faster than me.

    Would have been a more satisfying solve if Haddin had held that catch, but I guess that can’t be blamed on the setter or the blogger, to whom I extend my gratitude.

  21. Technical DNF for me too, being completely bamboozled by MYCOLOGY which made the SW corner a tad tricky. I must have known this at one time in my life, but I am afraid that that brain cell must have died. Like others, I raised my eyebrows at the prophylactic, but bunged it in anyway.
  22. I did not finish due to NORN, completely unknown to me. I did not hazard a guess at all because I couldn’t see the wordplay, beyond wondering if a NDRA was some organization that might be referred to as a ‘language only army’. Otherwise everything else was done in 15 minutes or so. The SHEATHE was quite a surprise, as was 13A in the Guardian, as Olivia noted. Regards.
  23. Finished really fast sitting in the sunshine in a beer garden. Usually the crossword takes longer than a beer but not today. LOI was heath but, apart from the “in a daily not a sunday” thing, I was unsure whether HEATH was a shrub as opposed to just, sort of shrubland.

    And living in the US but from the UK, I quickly learnt (or would that be learned, US doesn’t like strong verbs so much) that the thing on the end of your pencil is an eraser.

  24. Breezed through this one, though a little hold up at the end with SHEATH the last to go in… errr, on?

  25. A sluggish 10:18 for me, not really on the setter’s wavelength and imagining that several clues were going to be a lot more difficult than they actually were.

    I’m another who had a double take with 28ac. (I came across a “USB condom” – in the V&A – for the first time today, though I’m not expecting one to appear in the Times crossword any time soon. Try syncstop.com if you want to buy an updated version.)

    Did the citizens of Sparta consider helots to be Spartans?

Comments are closed.